Oh, the irony.
There it was just above Democrat Illinois Gov. Quinn’s editorial pleading to make the state’s temporary income tax hike a permanent income tax hike, as if we could see that one coming.
You might remember that Illinois kind of went the “other” way a few years ago, hiking taxes on personal income 66 percent as a way of trying to get out of the de facto bankruptcy that politicians like Illinois Senator Barack Obama (Present!) had given the state.
Politicians and unions had combined in plan to grift taxpayers in a union pension scheme that was always going to blow up, whatever the economy did.
And so instead of cutting taxes to stimulate the economy, and get increased revenue for the state the honest way, the politicians-- the machine from which Obama was born—said “Screw ‘em: Let’s just make the taxpayers pay it and finally put the shovel to the economy.”
The tax hike was only going to be temporary they said.
It’s regrettable: “But what about the children, sniff, sniff?” They would starve if the state didn’t get more revenue.
I was a resident of Illinois for more than 15 years.
The tax hike dodge is an old one practiced by both Downstate Republicans and Cook County Democrats since well before I was born.
But this time it’s finally catching up with both parties.
Because above the fold, just above Gov. Quinn’s taxatorial pleading to make the income tax hikes permanent, was a compendium of statistics complied by the Chicago Tribune that stands as an indictment not just to tax hikes, but to Illinois, Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, Jesse Jacksons-- senior and junior-- anyone named Daley, practically any Illinois governor not indicted in my life time—we’ll call them unindicted co-conspirators-- and our current president of the United States (Present!) Barack “The-H-stands-for-Tax-Hike” Obama.
The list of statistics is a long recitation of how poorly Illinois has fared even in the worst economic recovery of the modern era.
Officially, therefore Illinois has become King of the Crap, Lord of the Flies, whatever.
In categories like business climate, unemployment, overall economic performance, and household income, the Tribune tells a doleful tale that is the logical extreme of Keynesian economics at it’s worst.
To keep the government running the state has had to completely gut the private sector.
In unemployment Illinois has gone from 9th in the nation to 49th-ish (or 56th-ish depending on how many states you recognize): “The latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data — for January, seasonally adjusted — rank unemployment rates from a high of 9.2 percent in Rhode Island to a low of 2.6 percent in North Dakota,” says the Tribune. “At 8.7 percent, Illinois ties with Nevada for second-worst. Illinois now has 376,099 fewer nonfarm jobs than in January 2008 — a drop of 5.9 percent.”
And here’s a question for Illinoisans: How do you spend $14,000 per year, per student on K-12 education and not graduate the most prepared, highest scoring students in the history of the planet?
And it’s not fair saying that other states spend more.
For a class of 25 students, that’s $350,000 per year.
There are private prep schools that can graduate college ready students yearly for less.
Not surprisingly Illinois leads the nation in local governmental units with 6,963.
That’s a lot of union contracts.
Which of course is the real issue, isn’t it?
Illinois is run like an ATM for politicians and their pals while the taxpayers and citizens gets screwed.
But what once was just Illinois’ problem is now a problem for the whole country.
Because as a county under Barack “The-H-stands-for-Tax-Hike” Obama (Present!) we’re taking on the tone and coloration of the Land of Lincoln—and not the good parts.
Oh, the irony.
We voted for Hope and Change.
And we got Illinois.
It happens every time.
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